There is a building on Upper Rathmines Road which was opened as a Protestant And Orange Hall in November 1890.
The Westminster parliamentary borough of Rathmines had a unionist majority up to independence in 1922. The last Member of Parliament it returned was Maurice Dockrell.
For several hundred years Rathmines was the location of a “spa” – in fact a spring – the water of which was said to have health-giving properties. It attracted people with all manner of ailments to the area. In the 19th century it was called the “Grattan Spa”, as it was located on property once belonging to Henry Grattan, close to Portobello Bridge. The “spa” gradually fell into a state of neglect as the century progressed, until disputes arose between those who wished to preserve it and those (mainly developers) who wished to get rid of it altogether. In 1872 a Dr. O’Leary, who held a high estimate of the water quality, reported that the “spa” was in “a most disgraceful state of repair”, upon which the developer and alderman Frederick Stokes sent samples to the medical inspector, Dr. Cameron, for analysis. Dr. Cameron, a great lover of authority, reported: “It was, in all probability, merely the drainings of some ancient disused sewer, not a chalybeate spring.” Access to the site was blocked up and the once popular “spa” faded from public memory.
THE PROTESTANT AND ORANGE HALL AT UPPER RATHMINES ROAD
This has been used as a Gospel Hall since 1965 and even though many of my family live in the area I never noticed the building until I photographed it in January 2022.
It took a lot of research but it would appear that the building was known locally as the “Protestant Hall” but it was opened in November 1890 as the ‘Orange and Protestant Hall’ or the Rathmines Loyal Orange Lodge No. 1505. The Grand Master was George Lyster.
Throughout the nineteenth century Dublin City and and County hosted a number of Lodges. These Lodges were to be found in areas such a Rathmines, South Circular Road, North Strand and Kingstown, (Dun Laoghaire). Following the First World War the Orange Order in Dublin began its decline mainly due to losses in the Great War, emigration and national politics.
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